Letters to the Editor

There’s a silver lining in a recent internal audit finding that the Columbus City Schools’ Transportation Department’s phone system is a dysfunctional mess: The report is evidence that last year’s reorganization of the internal auditor’s office could pay off.

A recent story of charity in Columbus is a reminder that people want to help others in need, especially those without homes. But it also illustrates that, in many cases, fixing “homelessness” involves a lot more than putting a roof over somebody’s head.

Maybe those of us who write about politics and campaigns should adopt a bristly uniform of hair shirts, so that we’re constantly atoning for our sins. Maybe we should wear targets, the better for our critics to take aim at us. Oh, how we’re hated. And as another presidential race takes shape, that hatred gathers force.

No one can question Michael Bloomberg’s climate-change bona fides. As mayor of New York, he declared that cities had to lead the way in reducing the threat of climate change, and he strove to make New York greener. He has donated millions of dollars to the effort to shut down coal-fired power plants. Most recently, he was named the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for cities and climate change, a position he appears to be taking quite seriously.

There are sounds it feels like you’ve known forever, sounds that have been in your ear so long, it’s hard to believe they were ever new. One of those sounds is this: James Jamerson thumps a heartbeat on the bass. Robert White’s guitar corkscrews out in reply. And the immortal David Ruffin sings, in a voice of sweetness shadowed by sorrow, “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day.”

This week, the Supreme Court will hear a case that threatens to ax the subsidies millions of Americans receive for health insurance purchased on Obamacare’s federally run exchanges. And a sizable chunk of the population seems to be cheering for exactly that result. First, though, perhaps we should all look in the mirror and consider how much in health subsidies we’re milking from the government ourselves.